Loss of Victor Cruz is a deep threat to NY Giants season

Odell Beckham, who seems like the most natural fit in the slot, has just two games of NFL experience. (Robert Sabo/New York Daily News)

It's all so different now, one week after the most heart-wrenching moment in the Giants' recent memory. But Eli Manning keeps insisting that somehow, the offense will be the same.

The unflappable quarterback of reeling Big Blue knows he doesn't have Victor Cruz anymore, that his favorite receiver for the last four years is gone for the rest of 2014, possibly even longer. And he knows that he's barely played with four of the five receivers he has left — and his most experienced target showed up in East Rutherford on Wednesday.

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Never mind all that, he says. On Sunday in Dallas, against the streaking Cowboys, the Giants will show that there is Life After Victor Cruz.

"We still feel like we have a lot of weapons with our receiving corps or our tight ends," he says. "If you want to try to double somebody or take somebody away, somebody will be open, and we feel confident we can win that matchup."

But oh, that confidence is fragile, because so much — far more than Manning wants to admit — changed last Sunday in Philly, when Cruz left the field on a cart after shredding his right patellar tendon. The Giants didn't just lose the receiver who shared a symbiotic relationship with Manning; they lost the elder statesman of their green pass-catching corps, their savviest route-runner, and the one player who consistently scared opposing defenses.

That impact was felt as much off the field as on it last week. The receiver meetings just felt wrong, says preseason sensation Corey Washington.

"Everything . . . it's just been different," Washington says.

Preston Parker, who has accounted for 15% of the Giants passing attack this season, is now among an untested group that will need to step up in the absence of Victor Cruz.

Ever since April, Cruz, had been a vocal presence, a key reason he'd emerged as a team captain. But now, by default, that role of leader falls to third-year man Rueben Randle. Sure, he's the quiet, unassuming type, but who else could the Giants turn to? Rookie Odell Beckham? Journeyman Preston Parker? The untested Washington? Kevin Ogletree, who was signed just Tuesday?

So Randle, who's long been accused of lacking chemistry with Manning, has found himself speaking up, "guiding" his mates.

"Leadership-wise, it's for sure Rueben," Ogletree says without hesitation. "And Odell, too. He's a young guy, but he's being called on to lead."

Manning has also spoken up more with his new receivers, correcting their routes and getting them in the right spots.

"I think the quarterback, you're always vocal with your receivers," he says. "There's a lot of coaching involved in getting them on the same page. I think all of them are good guys, and they work hard."

But can effort offset the fear Cruz struck into opposing secondaries? Through the season's first six games, the rebuilt Giants offense relied on Cruz in a way that his team-high 337 receiving yards didn't even show.

"Teams would drop a safety on his side of the field and try to play him in and out some," Manning says. "That opened stuff for other guys, because if you want to try to double somebody, somebody else is open."

Suddenly, the three-wide package is severely diminished. Parker is expected to be the third receiver, joining Randle and Beckham, and Manning says that "there's a chance" that Washington, who saw increased first-team action this week "is going to have more of a role."

But do any of these receivers warrant more than single coverage? Will Dallas now bring increased pressure at Manning?

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Add in the fact that steady running back Rashad Jennings is missing a second straight week, and there will be plenty of pressure on the kids to make plays and quiet the Dallas crowd.

"We'll see how they're going to play us," says offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo. "We're going to have a plan, we're going to move some guys around."

That's a massive departure from the early-season plan, which almost always left Cruz alone in the slot, but McAdoo believes it's better to shift his untested receivers, and he has his reasons. Beckham, who seems like the most natural fit in the slot, has just two games of NFL experience, and he may not be ready to read the Cowboy 'D' and find its soft spots.

Rueben Randle is now the most experienced wide receiver Eli Manning has to throw to. (Bill Kostroun/AP)

"This is only his third week back into practice," McAdoo said of Beckham, "so he's getting his football legs underneath him. He's getting in football shape . . . You can use different body types in (the slot.) Each of them do different things well."

And somehow, all of these receivers, from the inconsistent Randle to the still-untested Beckham to the tantalizing Washington, will have to make their presences felt in Dallas — and in the final 10 games of 2014. The offense has lost its greatest weapon, and no one player can replace that.

But in the first game in Life After Victor Cruz, Randle believes all of his fellow receivers can find a way to get things done.

"I think everybody can be interchangeable, so I don't think you're going to change the offense around," he says. "It's still the same."